The year 2020 will go down as one in which the Destitution Project had to make significant changes to its way of operating in place of the normal Wednesday Drop-in. Celebrating Christmas was no exception.
On our final full Wednesday before Christmas, December 16th, we decided to go ahead with a 'socially distanced' Christmas meal, working closely as you would expect within the Government guidelines for health and safety.
We invited our Trustees and Volunteers to come in over lunchtime to join the relatively small group who have been providing for our service users during this pandemic. In the end, a number of our volunteers and trustees were able to come, including a few we had not seen for a while, plus Alan Brown of Bolton Mutual Aid who normally provides a cooked meal for the weekly Drop in.
We were grateful to Operations Manager, Josh, and the staff at the Victoria Hall for providing and serving the meal. We had delicious soup and rolls, soft drinks, tea/coffee and mince pies followed by an ice cream lolly. One of our volunteers, Elsie, who normally organises games on this annual occasion, provided the festive music for us quietly in the background. Most people wore Christmas hats and some arrived in fancy dress for the celebration. Votes of thanks were given to everyone by our Chairman, Paul Martin, for their sterling efforts during a difficult year. Josh and his staff were thanked as was Alan for his help during the year.
It was truly a DP Christmas celebration with a difference. We missed having our service users with us but hopefully we will be back to normal well before next Christmas.
By: Paul Barnes, Drop in Coordinator
